The present invention relates to hose coupling wrenches and especially to a hose coupling wrench for rapidly coupling or uncoupling large hoses.
In the past, it has been common to provide various types of hose couplings for coupling hoses such as fire hoses to fire trucks or to other fire hoses for extending their length. These couplings generally are of a quick coupling type, such as Bayonet couplings for rapidly attaching and removing connected hoses, or for rapidly attaching or removing a hose attached to a fixed coupling. The couplings may be difficult to remove so that special tools are sometimes adapted for attaching and removing the coupling.
In the past, various U.S. Patents have utilized dual handle wrenches and these include U.S. Pat. No. 1,708,147 to Miller for a tappet wrench in which two wrench portions are interconnected with a link sliding in a slide in one of the wrench portions for rotating bolts in opposite directions. In U.S. Pat. No. 1,572,986 to Brewster, interconnected pipe tongs are used for coupling and uncoupling to a pipe. The two handle portions are connected in a different manner from the present invention. In U.S. Pat. No. 2,599,489 to Schmidt a pair of handles have pronged ends, while U.S. Pat. No. 2,375,270 to Yonkers shows a pair of interconnected wrenches. Similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 3,156,141 to Pluntz shows a pair of interconnected wrenches. U.S. Pat. No. 1,402,391 to Baldus has a pair of pliers interconnected with a wrench for adjusting valves, while U.S. Pat. No. 378,299 to Finch has interconnected wrench handles connected between the handles. The Freeland Pat. No. 755,569 has a ratchet wrench having two ratcheting handles for ratcheting in opposite directions, while the Bartelt U.S. Pat. No. 1,406,331 has a double wrench that has connections between the handles between vertical and horizontal slots.
The present invention advantageously is specifically directed towards coupling and uncoupling snap tight hose couplings, utilizing two identical wrench portions, having handles connected to arcuate coupling engaging arms, and having coupling surfaces on each end of each arm. The arcuate arms have arcuate slots therein for interconnecting to a slider for simultaneously twisting portions of a pipe coupling in opposite directions.